Alexander Novikov

Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov (19 November 1900-3 December 1976) was the Chief Marshal of Aviation of the Soviet Union from 1942 to 1946, succeeding Pavel Zhigarev and preceding Konstantin Vershinin.

Biography
Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov was born on 19 November 1900 in Kryukovo, Kostroma Oblast, Russian Empire. Novikov joined the Red Army in 1919 and the Bolsheviks in 1920, and he helped in putting down the mutiny at Kronstadt in 1921 and in the anti-guerrilla fighting in the Caucasus mountains in 1942. In 1930, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy, and he entered the Soviet Air Force in 1933. In 1937, he was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the army during the Great Purge, only to become the commander of the Leningrad Military District's air forces during the Winter War in 1939. In 1940, he was promoted to Major-General for his role in the conflict, and he took command of the Air Force as Chief Marshal of Aviation in 1942. Novikov provided Georgy Zhukov with an aerial blockade of Stalingrad during the Battle of Stalingrad, destroying 1,200 German planes; 1,100 more would be destroyed over the Kuban region. During the Battle of Koenigsberg, 2,500 of Novikov's planes took part in the bombing of the city. In 1946, he was tortured, stripped of his command, and sent to a labor camp after Lavrentiy Beria and the NKVD discovered that the United States had better spy planes than the USSR, blaming this disadvantage on Novikov. In 1953, Nikita Khrushchev released Novikov after the coup that overthrew the Stalinists, and he served in the air force until 1958. He died in 1976 at the age of 76.